I couldn't live without...VoiceFriend

Jean DeThomas, executive director at Woburn, MA-based Brightview Country Club Hills, says adopting the VoiceFriend automated communications system has given the organization a brand new set of capabilities for connecting with residents, relatives and staff.

In only two months, the system “has given us a venue to inform residents about daily activities and given them a resource for hearing about upcoming events, menus of the day and other announcements over the phone,” she said. “VoiceFriend gives our residents a personal one-on-one connection.”

The new system also allows managers to reach staff by phone simultaneously to notify them of extra shift availabilities or urgent situations, eliminating the need to make individual phone calls.

Fecal transplants should be considered for patients with recurrent cases of Clostridium difficile whose symptoms cannot be addressed by antibiotics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said in new guidelines published Thursday.

Lawmakers took a long-standing industry complaint to the Department of Health and Human Services this week, telling Secretary Alex Azar that Medicare and Medicaid favor opioid prescription over non-addictive alternatives for treating chronic pain.